


Purrfectly Awkward

by 26stars



Category: Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D. (TV)
Genre: Accidental girlfriend acquisition, F/F, Fluff, Sci-Ops Era (Agents of S.H.I.E.L.D.), Turned into an animal trope, first attraction
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-02-28
Updated: 2019-02-28
Packaged: 2019-11-06 22:14:01
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,801
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17948111
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/26stars/pseuds/26stars
Summary: For the femslash feb prompt: “i got cursed and turned into an animal and taken to the shelter and ended up getting adopted by someone who is really hot oh no” au"





	Purrfectly Awkward

**Author's Note:**

> This prompt was actually for Morsecode but I misread it and wrote it for Simmorse. Hope you can still enjoy though!

Not for the first time this hour, Bobbi Morse cursed herself for being so careless. Rule zero of laboratory any was safety first, a practice that was _far_ more important when the lab in question frequently dealt with 0-8-4s. Anyone inside the lab’s doors should have had gloves on at all times, but a spill at her station had made Bobbi strip hers off as soon as clean-up was done, and before she had donned another pair, she’d paused in the aisle to pick up something that had fallen on the floor…

…and suddenly found herself without hands, and without vision.

Well, that wasn’t exactly what it was. She could see just fine, but for a long, confusing moment, her vision was obscured by something soft and heavy that fell over her eyes, which she pawed frantically at to move out of the way…only to discover that her hands were suddenly, well, paws. A few seconds of literal clawing had finally gotten her free of the fabric, which she realized almost immediately was the blouse and lab coat she had been wearing only a moment before. Her first confused glances at her surroundings showed her a vantage point of the lab she had never seen before—from only a few inches off the ground. Her clothes were in a slapdash pile beside her, fallen to completely obscure the object she had been trying to pick up…

Attempting to look at herself gave her a perplexing observation of fur and claws where her hands and arms used to be, and Bobbi let out a shriek that sounded even to her own ears as, well, more of a yowl.

This, fortunately or unfortunately, finally grabbed the attention of all the other agents in the lab.

“Oh my god—who let a cat in here?” a junior agent exclaimed as he rounded the counter and saw her.

“Carson, it’s me, Morse!” Bobbi tried to say, but her own words came out only as a string of cat sounds.

“Jamil, get over here,” Agent Carson called, advancing on her. “There’s a cat by Morse’s station—help me catch it.”

Something instinctive made Bobbi back away as the scientist advanced on her, holding out its hand and bending down to her level.

“Here kitty,” Kyle called, clicking his tongue. “C’mere…”

Bobbi actively made herself stop backing away, realizing that running from the people in the best position to help her was the least useful thing she could do, but damned if she was going to let Kyle touch her when she wasn’t wearing any clothes…

“Oh, what a lovely cat!” an appreciative voice behind her exclaimed as a few more pairs of feet approached. Bobbi cast a glance over her shoulder to see (beyond the flick of her own spotted tail) a trio of scientists from the other side of the lab—Jamil, Trang, and Simmons—all staring at her with stunned expressions. The later, at least, had a slight smile on her face, and Bobbi quickly decided to make her odds of being handled by the only other woman in the room better. She trotted over to the English scientist and did the only thing she could think of—twined around her legs and attempted a purr.

“How did a cat get in here?” Carson repeated, approaching the other scientists. “How did it even get in the _facility_?”

“Doesn’t matter how it got _in_ —we need to get it _out_ ,” Trang said, shaking his head. “Simmons, can you—“

“And just where am I supposed to take it?” Simmons said, bending to run a hand over Bobbi’s head and down over her side. “What if it belongs to someone?”

“Who was the last person to come in today?” Kyle asked, looking around. “Wasn’t it Morse? Where is she now?”

Remembering her action that had triggered this whole mess, Bobbi abruptly bolted away from Simmons’ legs and back towards her coat fallen lab coat, meaning to grab her badge—in her mouth, she supposed—and hold it up for the others to see, but her sudden movement seemed to startle everyone into action.

“Oh, no, you don’t!” Carson said, attempting to grab her as she went by, but she darted easily out of his reach. She was still attempting to paw over her lab coat and find the badge, however, by the time the others caught up with her, and two hands suddenly grasped her around her middle to lift her up off the floor.

“I’ll at least take her to Weaver’s office for now,” Simmons announced, settling Bobbi against her chest and smoothing a hand over her head, a gesture that was hypnotizingly wonderful for some reason, and Morse found herself purring again without intention.

“There’s a good girl,” the scientist said with a kind smile as Bobbi looked up at her adoringly. “Come on now, let’s get you away from this china shop…”

Perhaps she should have protested being taken away from her clothes and the cause of her troubles more strongly, but Bobbi couldn’t quite make herself claw her way out of the young woman’s grip. Pressing her (still completely naked) body to the front of Simmons’ labcoat, she allowed herself to be carried out of the lab and down the hall through the gauntlet of curious looks.

“Agent Simmons…”

“Yes, it’s a cat; no, I don’t know how it got here,” Simmons interrupted every inquisition.

Before she knew it, they were walking through Agent Weaver’s office door, and the head of the Science department herself was abruptly ending a phone call.

“We found it in Lab F,” Simmons said, sitting down on one of the chairs in front of Weaver’s desk and shifting Bobbi down to her lap. “Do you happen to know anyone who has a cat?”

“Not on SHIELD grounds, no,” Weaver said, staring perplexedly at Bobbi, who stared back, willing the woman to recognize her.

“Shall I just take it off the grounds and leave it somewhere, then?” Simmons asked, and Bobbi turned sharply to look at her, attempting a glare even though she couldn’t quite bring herself to hiss.

“No, it might belong to someone, or someone’s project. I’ll have security review the lab camera footage to see where it came in,” Weaver said, already picking up the receiver of her phone again. “For now, you can just leave the cat in my office while you get back to work.”

Bobbi protested desperately as Simmons made to move her off her lap and set her on the floor, but again, only cat sounds came out.

“There, there, you’re all right,” the young woman said, scratching her behind the ears. “We’ll find out who you belong to in no time.”

“If no one has come forward by this evening,” Weaver called after her as Simmons turns to go, “do you by chance know someone who is not allergic to cats?”

~

That was how Bobbi found herself riding in the shoulder bag of the brunette scientist as she left the office for the day only a little while later. The others in the lab had either not discovered her clothes and badge or noticed her absence, and Weaver thankfully did not request that Simmons drop the cat off at a pound. The bus driver seemed willing to deliberately overlook the animal peering out of Simmons’ bag, but plenty of other people were staring, so Bobbi tucked her head down inside the bag, surfacing only when she felt her chauffer stand up and the cool gust of their transition to the street from the bus.

“Just another block now,” Simmons said, reaching into her bag to scratch Bobbi behind her ears once. “I suppose I ought to stop and get you some food though…”

Knowing that there was no way to explain that dry cat food was the last thing Bobbi was interested in touching, she kept silent and hidden in the bag as Simmons ducked into a corner market and picked up a basket of groceries. Once up in her apartment, however, Morse skittered away as quickly as possible, racing through the house in search of something she could use to communicate with her hostess. A laptop computer that she couldn’t open, a tablet that needed a fingerprint ID…it was likely enough that the scientist would use one or the other at some point tonight, but Bobbi would just have to bide her time until that happened.

She padded sullenly back to the kitchen-living area and hopped up on the back of the sofa where she could watch the young woman as she moved about the kitchen putting things away and starting dinner.

“Here, love,” Simmons called at one point as she set a small plate of catfood on the floor. Bobbi’s stomach growled at the small of the dinner on the stove, but she refused to even look at the plate on the floor, unwilling to sacrifice any more of her dignity today—bad enough that she was naked in a stranger’s home…

Speaking of, though, Simmons had doffed her cardigan and shoes after they had come in, but now she was stripping off her blouse too, continuing to cook in only her slacks and camisole. Bobbi watched her with passive interest, suppressing an urge to leap on the abandoned garment and roll on it until their scents mingled…

Bobbi huffed out an impatient sound and pawed angrily at the sofa. _What kind of thought was_ that _?_

Simmons eventually came to sit on the sofa to eat with the TV on to the evening news, and Bobbi sprawled on the cushion beside her and forced herself not to beg for the food off her plate, slightly confused by her desire to continue rubbing against her. The girl smelled nice enough, all soft edges for snuggling, and her touch was gentle and unthreatening. Simmons’ hand occasionally strayed down to pet her, smoothing over Bobbi’s side or rubbing her kindly on the head. Bobbi found herself purring again, the soothing touches making her forget for a little while that she was stuck in a body that wasn’t right in a home that wasn’t hers.

“You know,” Simmons eventually said quietly, as Bobbi pressed into her touch, her purring intensifying, “I didn’t want to mention it to Agent Weaver, but I’ve actually been hoping for some company around here. I’m not sure where you came from, but maybe you’re the universe’s answer.”

Bobbi opened her eyes and stared up at the kind face above her, feeling a temptation to smile for the first time since this all started.

She certainly wasn’t planning to let this carry on forever. But once everything was fixed, Bobbi realized, maybe this wouldn’t be such a bad place, or person, to come back to after all.

**Author's Note:**

> I was definitely picturing Bobbi as a Bengal cat when I was writing--if you've never seen one, google it right now! They're stunning


End file.
